Provided by: mkvtoolnix_45.0.0-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       mkvmerge - Merge multimedia streams into a Matroska file

SYNOPSIS

       mkvmerge [global options] {-o out} [options1] {file1} [[options2] {file2}] [@options-file.json]

DESCRIPTION

       This program takes the input from several media files and joins their streams (all of them or just a
       selection) into a Matroska file; see the Matroska website[1].

           Important
           The order of command line options is important. Please read the section "Option order" if you're new
           to the program.

   Global options
       -v, --verbose
           Increase verbosity.

       -q, --quiet
           Suppress status output.

       -o, --output file-name
           Write to the file file-name. If splitting is used then this parameter is treated a bit differently.
           See the explanation for the --split option for details.

       -w, --webm
           Create a WebM compliant file. This is also turned on if the output file name's extension is "webm".
           This mode enforces several restrictions. The only allowed codecs are VP8, VP9 video and Opus, Vorbis
           audio tracks. The DocType header item is changed to "webm".

           For chapters and tags only a subset of elements are allowed.  mkvmerge(1) will automatically remove
           all elements not allowed by the specification.

       --title title
           Sets the general title for the output file, e.g. the movie name.

       --default-language language-code
           Sets the default language code that will be used for tracks for which no language is set with the
           --language option and for which the source container doesn't provide a language.

           The default language code is 'und' for 'undefined'.

   Segment info handling (global options)
       --segmentinfo filename.xml
           Read segment information from a XML file. This file can contain the segment family UID, segment UID,
           previous and next segment UID elements. An example file and a DTD are included in the MKVToolNix
           distribution.

           See the section about segment info XML files below for details.

       --segment-uid SID1,SID2,...
           Sets the segment UIDs to use. This is a comma-separated list of 128-bit segment UIDs in the usual UID
           form: hex numbers with or without the "0x" prefix, with or without spaces, exactly 32 digits.

           If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a Matroska file whose segment UID is
           read and used.

           Each file created contains one segment, and each segment has one segment UID. If more segment UIDs
           are specified than segments are created then the surplus UIDs are ignored. If fewer UIDs are
           specified than segments are created then random UIDs will be created for them.

   Chapter and tag handling (global options)
       --chapter-language language-code
           Sets the ISO 639-2 language code that is written for each chapter entry. Defaults to 'eng'. See the
           section about chapters below for details.

           This option can be used both for simple chapter files and for source files that contain chapters but
           no information about the chapters' language, e.g. MP4 and OGM files.

           The language set with this option is also used when chapters are generated with the
           --generate-chapters option.

       --chapter-charset character-set
           Sets the character set that is used for the conversion to UTF-8 for simple chapter files. See the
           section about text files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1) converts between
           character sets.

           This switch does also apply to chapters that are copied from certain container types, e.g. Ogg/OGM
           and MP4 files. See the section about chapters below for details.

       --chapter-sync d[,o[/p]]
           Adjust the timestamps of the chapters in the following source file by d ms. Alternatively you can use
           the --sync option with the special track ID -2 (see section special track IDs).

           o/p: adjust the timestamps by o/p to fix linear drifts.  p defaults to 1 if omitted. Both o and p can
           be floating point numbers.

           Defaults: no manual sync correction (which is the same as d = 0 and o/p = 1.0).

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       --generate-chapters mode
           mkvmerge(1) can create chapters automatically. The following two modes are currently supported:

           •   'when-appending' – This mode creates one chapter at the start and one chapter whenever a file is
               appended.

                   Note
                   mkvmerge(1) requires a video or an audio track to be present in order to be able to determine
                   when a new file is appended. If one or more video tracks are muxed the first one is used.
                   Otherwise the first audio track is used.

           •   'interval:time-spec' – This mode creates one chapter at fixed intervals given by time-spec. The
               format is either the form HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn or a number followed by one of the units 's', 'ms'
               or 'us'.

               Example: --generate-chapters interval:45s

           The names for the new chapters are controlled by the option --generate-chapters-name-template. The
           language is set with --chapter-language which must occur before --generate-chapters.

       --generate-chapters-name-template template
           This sets the name template for chapter names generated by the option --generate-chapters. If the
           option is not used then default 'Chapter <NUM:2>' will be used.

           There are several variables that can be used in the template that are replaced by their actual values
           when a chapter is generated. The string '<NUM>' will be replaced by the chapter number. The string
           '<START>' will be replaced by the chapter's start timestamp.

           The strings '<FILE_NAME>' and '<FILE_NAME_WITH_EXT>' are only filled when generating chapters for
           appended files. They will be replaced by the appended file's name wihtout respectively with its
           extension. Note that only the file's base name and extension are inserted, not its directory or drive
           components.

           You can specify a minimum number of places for the chapter number with '<NUM:places>', e.g.
           '<NUM:3>'. The resulting number will be padded with leading zeroes if the number of places is less
           than specified.

           You can control the format used by the start timestamp with <START:format>. The format defaults to
           '%H:%M:%S' if none is given. Valid format codes are:

           •   %h – hours

           •   %H – hours zero-padded to two places

           •   %m – minutes

           •   %M – minutes zero-padded to two places

           •   %s – seconds

           •   %S – seconds zero-padded to two places

           •   %n – nanoseconds with nine places

           •   %<1-9>n – nanoseconds with up to nine places (e.g. three places with %3n)

       --cue-chapter-name-format format
           mkvmerge(1) supports reading CUE sheets for audio files as the input for chapters.  CUE sheets
           usually contain the entries PERFORMER and TITLE for each index entry.  mkvmerge(1) uses these two
           strings in order to construct the chapter name. With this option the format used for this name can be
           set.

           If this option is not given then mkvmerge(1) defaults to the format '%p - %t' (the performer,
           followed by a space, a dash, another space and the title).

           If the format is given then everything except the following meta characters is copied as-is, and the
           meta characters are replaced like this:

           •   %p is replaced by the current entry's PERFORMER string,

           •   %t is replaced by the current entry's TITLE string,

           •   %n is replaced by the current track number and

           •   %N is replaced by the current track number padded with a leading zero if it is < 10.

       --chapters file-name
           Read chapter information from the file file-name. See the section about chapters below for details.

       --global-tags file-name
           Read global tags from the file file-name. See the section about tags below for details.

   General output control (advanced global options)
       --track-order FID1:TID1,FID2:TID2,...
           This option changes the order in which the tracks for an input file are created. The argument is a
           comma separated list of pairs IDs. Each pair contains first the file ID (FID1) which is simply the
           number of the file on the command line starting at 0. The second is a track ID (TID1) from that file.
           If some track IDs are omitted then those tracks are created after the ones given with this option
           have been created.

       --cluster-length spec
           Limit the number of data blocks or the duration of data in each cluster. The spec parameter can
           either be a number n without a unit or a number d postfixed with 'ms'.

           If no unit is used then mkvmerge(1) will put at most n data blocks into each cluster. The maximum
           number of blocks is 65535.

           If the number d is postfixed with 'ms' then mkvmerge(1) puts at most d milliseconds of data into each
           cluster. The minimum for d is '100ms', and the maximum is '32000ms'.

           mkvmerge(1) defaults to putting at most 65535 data blocks and 5000ms of data into a cluster.

           Programs trying to find a certain frame can only seek directly to a cluster and have to read the
           whole cluster afterwards. Therefore creating larger clusters may lead to imprecise or slow seeking.

       --no-cues
           Tells mkvmerge(1) not to create and write the cue data which can be compared to an index in an AVI.
           Matroska files can be played back without the cue data, but seeking will probably be imprecise and
           slower. Use this only if you're really desperate for space or for testing purposes. See also option
           --cues which can be specified for each input file.

       --clusters-in-meta-seek
           Tells mkvmerge(1) to create a meta seek element at the end of the file containing all clusters. See
           also the section about the Matroska file layout.

       --no-date
           By default mkvmerge(1) sets the "date" segment information field to the time & date when multiplexing
           started. With this option that field is not written at all.

       --disable-lacing
           Disables lacing for all tracks. This will increase the file's size, especially if there are many
           audio tracks. This option is not intended for everyday use.

       --enable-durations
           Write durations for all blocks. This will increase file size and does not offer any additional value
           for players at the moment.

       --disable-track-statistics-tags
           Normally mkvmerge(1) will write certain tags with statistics for each track. If such tags are already
           present then they will be overwritten. The tags are BPS, DURATION, NUMBER_OF_BYTES and
           NUMBER_OF_FRAMES.

           Enabling this option prevents mkvmerge(1) from writing those tags and from touching any existing tags
           with same names.

       --timestamp-scale factor
           Forces the timestamp scale factor to factor. Valid values are in the range 1000..10000000 or the
           special value -1.

           Normally mkvmerge(1) will use a value of 1000000 which means that timestamps and durations will have
           a precision of 1ms. For files that will not contain a video track but at least one audio track
           mkvmerge(1) will automatically chose a timestamp scale factor so that all timestamps and durations
           have a precision of one audio sample. This causes bigger overhead but allows precise seeking and
           extraction.

           If the special value -1 is used then mkvmerge(1) will use sample precision even if a video track is
           present.

   File splitting, linking, appending and concatenation (more global options)
       --split specification
           Splits the output file after a given size or a given time. Please note that tracks can only be split
           right before a key frame. Therefore the split point may be a bit off from what the user has
           specified.

           At the moment mkvmerge(1) supports four different modes.

            1. Splitting by size.

               Syntax: --split [size:]d[k|m|g]

               Examples: --split size:700m or --split 150000000

               The parameter d may end with 'k', 'm' or 'g' to indicate that the size is in KB, MB or GB
               respectively. Otherwise a size in bytes is assumed. After the current output file has reached
               this size limit a new one will be started.

               The 'size:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility reasons.

            2. Splitting after a duration.

               Syntax: --split [duration:]HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn|ds

               Examples: --split duration:00:60:00.000 or --split 3600s

               The parameter must either have the form HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn for specifying the duration in up to
               nano-second precision or be a number d followed by the letter 's' for the duration in seconds.
               HH is the number of hours, MM the number of minutes, SS the number of seconds and nnnnnnnnn the
               number of nanoseconds. Both the number of hours and the number of nanoseconds can be omitted.
               There can be up to nine digits after the decimal point. After the duration of the contents in the
               current output has reached this limit a new output file will be started.

               The 'duration:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility reasons.

            3. Splitting after specific timestamps.

               Syntax: --split timestamps:A[,B[,C...]]

               Example: --split timestamps:00:45:00.000,01:20:00.250,6300s

               The parameters A, B, C etc must all have the same format as the ones used for the duration (see
               above). The list of timestamps is separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the
               current split point's timestamp a new file is created. Then the next split point given in this
               list is used.

               The 'timestamps:' prefix must not be omitted.

            4. Keeping specific parts by specifying timestamp ranges while discarding others.

               Syntax: --split parts:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]

               Examples:

                1. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,00:05:50-00:10:30

                2. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,+00:05:50-00:10:30


                3. --split parts:-00:02:45,00:05:50-
               The parts mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges of timestamps while discarding others.
               The ranges to keep have to be listed after the parts: keyword and be separated by commas. A range
               itself consists of a start and an end timestamp in the same format the other variations of
               --split accept (e.g. both 00:01:20 and 80s refer to the same timestamp).

               If a start timestamp is left out then it defaults to the previous range's end timestamp. If there
               was no previous range then it defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).

               If an end timestamp is left out then it defaults to the end of the source files which basically
               tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the rest (see example 3).

               Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be changed so that consecutive ranges
               are written to the same file. For that the user has to prefix the start timestamp with a +. This
               tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and instead append the range to the same file the
               previous range was written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will be no gap in the
               output file even if there was a gap in the two ranges in the input file.

               In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will contain the content starting from
               00:01:20 until 00:02:45. The second file will contain the content starting from 00:05:50 until
               00:10:30.

               In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file will contain both the content
               starting from 00:01:20 until 00:02:45 and the content starting from 00:05:50 until 00:10:30.

               In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will contain the content from the start
               of the source files until 00:02:45. The second file will contain the content starting from
               00:05:50 until the end of the source files.

                   Note
                   Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting at key frame positions. This
                   applies to both the start and the end of each range. So even if an end timestamp is between
                   two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue outputting the frames up to but excluding the
                   following key frame.

            5. Keeping specific parts by specifying frame/field number ranges while discarding others.

               Syntax: --split parts-frames:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]

               Examples:

                1. --split parts-frames:137-258,548-1211

                2. --split parts-frames:733-912,+1592-2730


                3. --split parts-frames:-430,2512-
               The parts-frames mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges of frame/field numbers while
               discarding others. The ranges to keep have to be listed after the parts-frames: keyword and be
               separated by commas. A range itself consists of a start and an end frame/field number. Numbering
               starts at 1.

               If a start number is left out then it defaults to the previous range's end number. If there was
               no previous range then it defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).

               If an end number is left out then it defaults to the end of the source files which basically
               tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the rest (see example 3).

               Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be changed so that consecutive ranges
               are written to the same file. For that the user has to prefix the start number with a +. This
               tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and instead append the range to the same file the
               previous range was written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will be no gap in the
               output file even if there was a gap in the two ranges in the input file.

                   Note
                   Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting at key frame positions. This
                   applies to both the start and the end of each range. So even if an end frame/field number is
                   between two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue outputting the frames up to but excluding
                   the following key frame.
               In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will contain the content starting from
               the first key frame at or after 137 up to but excluding the first key frame at or after 258. The
               second file will contain the content starting from 548 until 1211.

               In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file will contain both the content
               starting from 733 until 912 and the content starting from 1592 until 2730.

               In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will contain the content from the start
               of the source files until 430. The second file will contain the content starting from 2512 until
               the end of the source files.

               This mode considers only the first video track that is output. If no video track is output no
               splitting will occur.

                   Note
                   The numbers given with this argument are interpreted based on the number of Matroska blocks
                   that are output. A single Matroska block contains either a full frame (for progressive
                   content) or a single field (for interlaced content). mkvmerge does not distinguish between
                   those two and simply counts the number of blocks. For example: If one wanted to split after
                   the 25th full frame with interlaced content one would have to use 50 (two fields per full
                   frame) as the split point.

            6. Splitting after specific frames/fields.

               Syntax: --split frames:A[,B[,C...]]

               Example: --split frames:120,237,891

               The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers. Numbering starts at 1. The list of
               frame/field numbers is separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the current split
               point's frame/field number a new file is created. Then the next split point given in this list is
               used.

               The 'frames:' prefix must not be omitted.

               This mode considers only the first video track that is output. If no video track is output no
               splitting will occur.

                   Note
                   The numbers given with this argument are interpreted based on the number of Matroska blocks
                   that are output. A single Matroska block contains either a full frame (for progressive
                   content) or a single field (for interlaced content). mkvmerge does not distinguish between
                   those two and simply counts the number of blocks. For example: If one wanted to split after
                   the 25th full frame with interlaced content one would have to use 50 (two fields per full
                   frame) as the split point.

            7. Splitting before specific chapters.

               Syntax: --split chapters:all or --split chapters:A[,B[,C...]]

               Example: --split chapters:5,8

               The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers. Numbering starts at 1. The list of
               chapter numbers is separated by commas. Splitting will occur right before the first key frame
               whose timestamp is equal to or bigger than the start timestamp for the chapters whose numbers are
               listed. A chapter starting at 0s is never considered for splitting and discarded silently.

               The keyword all can be used instead of listing all chapter numbers manually.

               The 'chapters:' prefix must not be omitted.

                   Note
                   The Matroska file format supports arbitrary deeply nested chapter structures called 'edition
                   entries' and 'chapter atoms'. However, this mode only considers the top-most level of
                   chapters across all edition entries.

           For this splitting mode the output filename is treated differently than for the normal operation. It
           may contain a printf like expression '%d' including an optional field width, e.g. '%02d'. If it does
           then the current file number will be formatted appropriately and inserted at that point in the
           filename. If there is no such pattern then a pattern of '-%03d' is assumed right before the file's
           extension: '-o output.mkv' would result in 'output-001.mkv' and so on. If there's no extension then
           '-%03d' will be appended to the name.

       --link
           Link files to one another when splitting the output file. See the section on file linking below for
           details.

       --link-to-previous segment-UID
           Links the first output file to the segment with the segment UID given by the segment-UID parameter.
           See the section on file linking below for details.

           If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a Matroska file whose segment UID is
           read and used.

       --link-to-next segment-UID
           Links the last output file to the segment with the segment UID given by the segment-UID parameter.
           See the section on file linking below for details.

           If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a Matroska file whose segment UID is
           read and used.

       --append-mode mode
           Determines how timestamps are calculated when appending files. The parameter mode can have two
           values: 'file' which is also the default and 'track'.

           When mkvmerge appends a track (called 'track2_1' from now on) from a second file (called 'file2') to
           a track (called 'track1_1') from the first file (called 'file1') then it has to offset all timestamps
           for 'track2_1' by an amount. For 'file' mode this amount is the highest timestamp encountered in
           'file1' even if that timestamp was from a different track than 'track1_1'. In track mode the offset
           is the highest timestamp of 'track1_1'.

           Unfortunately mkvmerge cannot detect which mode to use reliably. Therefore it defaults to 'file'
           mode. 'file' mode usually works better for files that have been created independently of each other;
           e.g. when appending AVI or MP4 files. 'track' mode may work better for sources that are essentially
           just parts of one big file, e.g. for VOB and EVO files.

           Subtitle tracks are always treated as if 'file' mode were active even if 'track' mode actually is.

       --append-to SFID1:STID1:DFID1:DTID1[,...]
           This option controls to which track another track is appended. Each spec contains four IDs: a file
           ID, a track ID, a second file ID and a second track ID. The first pair, "source file ID" and "source
           track ID", identifies the track that is to be appended. The second pair, "destination file ID" and
           "destination track ID", identifies the track the first one is appended to.

           If this option has been omitted then a standard mapping is used. This standard mapping appends each
           track from the current file to a track from the previous file with the same track ID. This allows for
           easy appending if a movie has been split into two parts and both file have the same number of tracks
           and track IDs with the command mkvmerge -o output.mkv part1.mkv +part2.mkv.

       +
           A single '+' causes the next file to be appended instead of added. The '+' can also be put in front
           of the next file name. Therefore the following two commands are equivalent:

               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv +file2.mkv

       [ file1 file2 ]
           If multiple file names are contained in a pair of square brackets then the second and all following
           files will be appended to the first file named within the brackets.

           This is an alternative syntax to using '+' between the file names. Therefore the following two
           commands are equivalent:

               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv '[' file1.mkv file2.mkv ']'

       =
           Normally mkvmerge(1) looks for files in the same directory as an input file that have the same base
           name and only differ in their running number (e.g. 'VTS_01_1.VOB', 'VTS_01_2.VOB', 'VTS_01_3.VOB'
           etc) and treats all of those files as if they were concatenated into a single big file. This option,
           a single '=', causes mkvmerge not to look for those additional files.

           The '=' can also be put in front of the next file name. Therefore the following two commands are
           equivalent:

               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv = file1.mkv
               $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv =file1.mkv

       ( file1 file2 )
           If multiple file names are contained in a pair of parenthesis then those files will be treated as if
           they were concatenated into a single big file consisting of the content of each of the files one
           after the other.

           This can be used for e.g. VOB files coming from a DVD or MPEG transport streams. It cannot be used if
           each file contains its own set of headers which is usually the case with stand-alone files like AVI
           or MP4.

           Putting a file name into parenthesis also prevents mkvmerge(1) from looking for additional files with
           the same base name as described in option =. Therefore these two command lines are equivalent:

               $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv = file.mkv
               $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv '(' file.mkv ')'

           Several things should be noted:

            1. There must be spaces both after the opening and before the closing parenthesis.

            2. Every parameter between parenthesis is interpreted as a file name. Therefore all options applying
               to this logical file must be listed before the opening parenthesis.

            3. Some shells treat parenthesis as special characters. Hence you must escape or quote them as shown
               in the example above.

   Attachment support (more global options)
       --attachment-description description
           Plain text description of the following attachment. Applies to the next --attach-file or
           --attach-file-once option.

       --attachment-mime-type MIME type
           MIME type of the following attachment. Applies to the next --attach-file or --attach-file-once
           option. A list of officially recognized MIME types can be found e.g. at the IANA homepage[2]. The
           MIME type is mandatory for an attachment.

       --attachment-name name
           Sets the name that will be stored in the output file for this attachment. If this option is not given
           then the name will be derived from the file name of the attachment as given with the --attach-file or
           the --attach-file-once option.

       --attach-file file-name, --attach-file-once file-name
           Creates a file attachment inside the Matroska file. The MIME type must have been set before this
           option can used. The difference between the two forms is that during splitting the files attached
           with --attach-file are attached to all output files while the ones attached with --attach-file-once
           are only attached to the first file created. If splitting is not used then both do the same.

           mkvextract(1) can be used to extract attached files from a Matroska file.

   Options that can be used for each input file
       -a, --audio-tracks [!]n,m,...
           Copy the audio tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can be obtained with the --identify
           switch. They're not simply the track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all audio tracks.

           Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes. This will only work for source
           files that provide language tags for their tracks.

           Default: copy all tracks of this kind.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy all tracks of this kind but the
           ones listed after the !.

       -d, --video-tracks [!]n,m,...
           Copy the video tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can be obtained with the --identify
           switch. They're not simply the track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all video tracks.

           Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes. This will only work for source
           files that provide language tags for their tracks.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy all tracks of this kind but the
           ones listed after the !.

       -s, --subtitle-tracks [!]n,m,...
           Copy the subtitle tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can be obtained with the
           --identify switch. They're not simply the track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all
           subtitle tracks.

           Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes. This will only work for source
           files that provide language tags for their tracks.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy all tracks of this kind but the
           ones listed after the !.

       -b, --button-tracks [!]n,m,...
           Copy the button tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can be obtained with the --identify
           switch. They're not simply the track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all button
           tracks.

           Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes. This will only work for source
           files that provide language tags for their tracks.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy all tracks of this kind but the
           ones listed after the !.

       --track-tags [!]n,m,...
           Copy the tags for tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can be obtained with the
           --identify switch (see section track IDs). They're not simply the track numbers. Default: copy tags
           for all tracks.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy everything but the IDs listed
           after the !.

       -m, --attachments [!]n[:all|first],m[:all|first],...
           Copy the attachments with the IDs n, m etc to all or only the first output file. Each ID can be
           followed by either ':all' (which is the default if neither is entered) or ':first'. If splitting is
           active then those attachments whose IDs are specified with ':all' are copied to all of the resulting
           output files while the others are only copied into the first output file. If splitting is not active
           then both variants have the same effect.

           The default is to copy all attachments to all output files.

           If the IDs are prefixed with !  then the meaning is reversed: copy everything but the IDs listed
           after the !.

       -A, --no-audio
           Don't copy any audio track from this file.

       -D, --no-video
           Don't copy any video track from this file.

       -S, --no-subtitles
           Don't copy any subtitle track from this file.

       -B, --no-buttons
           Don't copy any button track from this file.

       -T, --no-track-tags
           Don't copy any track specific tags from this file.

       --no-chapters
           Don't copy chapters from this file.

       -M, --no-attachments
           Don't copy attachments from this file.

       --no-global-tags
           Don't copy global tags from this file.

       --chapter-charset character-set
           Sets the charset that is used for the conversion to UTF-8 for chapter information contained in the
           source file. See the section about text files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1)
           converts between character sets.

       --chapter-language language-code
           Sets the ISO 639-2 language code that is written for each chapter entry. This option can be used for
           source files that contain chapters but no information about the chapters' languages, e.g. for MP4 and
           OGM files.

       -y, --sync TID:d[,o[/p]]
           Adjust the timestamps of the track with the id TID by d ms. The track IDs are the same as the ones
           given with --identify (see section track IDs).

           o/p: adjust the timestamps by o/p to fix linear drifts.  p defaults to 1 if omitted. Both o and p can
           be floating point numbers.

           Defaults: no manual sync correction (which is the same as d = 0 and o/p = 1.0).

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       --cues TID:none|iframes|all
           Controls for which tracks cue (index) entries are created for the given track (see section track
           IDs). 'none' inhibits the creation of cue entries. For 'iframes' only blocks with no backward or
           forward references ( = I frames in video tracks) are put into the cue sheet. 'all' causes mkvmerge(1)
           to create cue entries for all blocks which will make the file very big.

           The default is 'iframes' for video and subtitle tracks and 'none' for audio tracks. See also option
           --no-cues which inhibits the creation of cue entries regardless of the --cues options used.

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       --default-track TID[:bool]
           Sets the 'default' flag for the given track (see section track IDs) if the optional argument bool is
           not present. If the user does not explicitly select a track himself then the player should prefer the
           track that has his 'default' flag set. Only one track of each kind (audio, video, subtitles, buttons)
           can have his 'default' flag set. If the user wants no track to have the default track flag set then
           he has to set bool to 0 for all tracks.

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       --forced-track TID[:bool]
           Sets the 'forced' flag for the given track (see section track IDs) if the optional argument bool is
           not present. A player must play all tracks for which this flag is set to 1.

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       --blockadd TID:level
           Keep only the BlockAdditions up to the level level for the given track. The default is to keep all
           levels. This option only affects certain kinds of codecs like WAVPACK4.

       --track-name TID:name
           Sets the track name for the given track (see section track IDs) to name.

       --language TID:language
           Sets the language for the given track (see section track IDs). Both ISO 639-2 language codes and ISO
           639-1 country codes are allowed. The country codes will be converted to language codes automatically.
           All languages including their ISO 639-2 codes can be listed with the --list-languages option.

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

       -t, --tags TID:file-name
           Read tags for the track with the number TID from the file file-name. See the section about tags below
           for details.

       --aac-is-sbr TID[:0|1]
           Tells mkvmerge(1) that the track with the ID TID is SBR AAC (also known as HE-AAC or AAC+). This
           options is needed if a) the source file is an AAC file (not for a Matroska file) and b) the AAC file
           contains SBR AAC data. The reason for this switch is that it is technically impossible to
           automatically tell normal AAC data from SBR AAC data without decoding a complete AAC frame. As there
           are several patent issues with AAC decoders mkvmerge(1) will never contain this decoding stage. So
           for SBR AAC files this switch is mandatory. The resulting file might not play back correctly or even
           not at all if the switch was omitted.

           If the source file is a Matroska file then the CodecID should be enough to detect SBR AAC. However,
           if the CodecID is wrong then this switch can be used to correct that.

           If mkvmerge wrongfully detects that an AAC file is SBR then you can add ':0' to the track ID.

       --reduce-to-core TID
           Some audio codecs have a lossy core and optional extensions that implement lossless decoding. This
           option tells mkvmerge(1) to only copy the core but not the extensions. By default mkvmerge(1) copies
           both the core and the extensions.

           Currently only DTS tracks are affected by this option. TrueHD tracks that contain an embedded AC-3
           core are instead presented as two separate tracks for which the user can select which track to copy.
           For DTS such a scheme would not work as the HD extensions cannot be decoded by themselves – unlike
           the TrueHD data.

       --remove-dialog-normalization-gain TID
           Some audio codecs contain header fields that tell the decoder or player to apply a (usually negative)
           gain for dialog normalization. This option tells mkvmerge(1) to remove or minimize that gain by
           modifying the corresponding header fields.

           Currently only AC-3, DTS and TrueHD tracks are affected by this option.

       --timestamps TID:file-name
           Read the timestamps to be used for the specific track ID from file-name. These timestamps forcefully
           override the timestamps that mkvmerge(1) normally calculates. Read the section about external
           timestamp files.

       --default-duration TID:x
           Forces the default duration of a given track to the specified value. Also modifies the track's
           timestamps to match the default duration. The argument x must be postfixed with 's', 'ms', 'us',
           'ns', 'fps', 'p' or 'i' to specify the default duration in seconds, milliseconds, microseconds,
           nanoseconds, 'frames per second', 'progressive frames per second' or 'interlaced frames per second'
           respectively. The number x itself can be a floating point number or a fraction.

           If the default duration is not forced then mkvmerge will try to derive the track's default duration
           from the container and/or the encoded bitstream for certain track types, e.g. AVC/H.264 or MPEG-2.

           This option can also be used to change the FPS of video tracks without having to use an external
           timestamp file.

       --fix-bitstream-timing-information TID[:0|1]
           Normally mkvmerge(1) does not change the timing information (frame/field rate) stored in the video
           bitstream. With this option that information is adjusted to match the container timing information.
           The container timing information can come from various sources: from the command line (see option
           --default-duration), the source container or derived from the bitstream.

               Note
               This has only been implemented for AVC/H.264 video tracks so far.

       --nalu-size-length TID:n
           Forces the NALU size length to n bytes. This parameter is only used if the AVC/H.264 elementary
           stream packetizer is used. If left out it defaults to 4 bytes, but there are files that contain
           frames or slices that are all smaller than 65536 bytes. For such files you can use this parameter and
           decrease the size to 2.

       --compression TID:n
           Selects the compression method to be used for the track. Note that the player also has to support
           this method. Valid values are 'none', 'zlib' and 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2'.

           The compression method 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2' is a special compression method called 'header removal'
           that is only available for MPEG4 part 2 video tracks.

           The default for some subtitle types is 'zlib' compression. This compression method is also the one
           that most if not all playback applications support. Support for other compression methods other than
           'none' is not assured.

   Options that only apply to video tracks
       -f, --fourcc TID:FourCC
           Forces the FourCC to the specified value. Works only for video tracks in the 'MS compatibility mode'.

       --display-dimensions TID:widthxheight
           Matroska files contain two values that set the display properties that a player should scale the
           image on playback to: display width and display height. These values can be set with this option,
           e.g. '1:640x480'.

           Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or the --aspect-ratio-factor option
           (see below). These options are mutually exclusive.

       --aspect-ratio TID:ratio|width/height
           Matroska files contain two values that set the display properties that a player should scale the
           image on playback to: display width and display height. With this option mkvmerge(1) will
           automatically calculate the display width and display height based on the image's original width and
           height and the aspect ratio given with this option. The ratio can be given either as a floating point
           number ratio or as a fraction 'width/height', e.g. '16/9'.

           Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio-factor or --display-dimensions options
           (see above and below). These options are mutually exclusive.

       --aspect-ratio-factor TID:factor|n/d
           Another way to set the aspect ratio is to specify a factor. The original aspect ratio is first
           multiplied with this factor and used as the target aspect ratio afterwards.

           Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or --display-dimensions options (see
           above). These options are mutually exclusive.

       --cropping TID:left,top,right,bottom
           Sets the pixel cropping parameters of a video track to the given values.

       --colour-matrix TID:n
           Sets the matrix coefficients of the video used to derive luma and chroma values from red, green and
           blue color primaries. The parameter n is an integer rangeing from 0 and 10.

           Valid values and their meaning are:

           0: GBR, 1: BT709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: FCC, 5: BT470BG, 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8:
           YCOCG, 9: BT2020 non-constant luminance, 10: BT2020 constant luminance

       --colour-bits-per-channel TID:n
           Sets the number of coded bits for a colour channel. A value of 0 indicates that the number of bits is
           unspecified.

       --chroma-subsample TID:hori,vert
           The amount of pixels to remove in the Cr and Cb channels for every pixel not removed
           horizontally/vertically.

           Example: For video with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, the parameter should be set to TID:1,1.

       --cb-subsample TID:hori,vert
           The amount of pixels to remove in the Cb channel for every pixel not removed horizontally/vertically.
           This is additive with --chroma-subsample.

           Example: For video with 4:2:1 chroma subsampling, the parameter --chroma-subsample should be set to
           TID:1,0 and Cb-subsample should be set to TID:1,0.

       --chroma-siting TID:hori,vert
           Sets how chroma is sited horizontally/vertically (0: unspecified, 1: top collocated, 2: half).

       --colour-range TID:n
           Sets the clipping of the color ranges (0: unspecified, 1: broadcast range, 2: full range (no
           clipping), 3: defined by MatrixCoefficients/TransferCharacteristics).

       --colour-transfer-characteristics TID:n
           The transfer characteristics of the video.

           Valid values and their meaning are:

           0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: gamma 2.2 curve, 5: gamma 2.8 curve, 6:
           SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: linear, 9: log, 10: log sqrt, 11: IEC 61966-2-4, 12: ITU-R BT.1361
           extended colour gamut, 13: IEC 61966-2-1, 14: ITU-R BT.2020 10 bit, 15: ITU-R BT.2020 12 bit, 16:
           SMPTE ST 2084, 17: SMPTE ST 428-1; 18: ARIB STD-B67 (HLG)

       --colour-primaries TID:n
           Sets the colour primaries of the video.

           Valid values and their meaning are:

           0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: ITU-R BT.470M, 5: ITU-R BT.470BG, 6:
           SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: FILM, 9: ITU-R BT.2020, 10: SMPTE ST 428-1, 22: JEDEC P22 phosphors

       --max-content-light TID:n
           Sets the maximum brightness of a single pixel (Maximum Content Light Level) in candelas per square
           meter (cd/m²). The value of n should be a non-negtive integer.

       --max-frame-light TID:n
           Sets the maximum brightness of a single full frame (Maximum Frame-Average Light Level) in candelas
           per square meter (cd/m²). The value of n should be a non-negtive integer.

       --chromaticity-coordinates TID:red-x,red-y,green-x,green-y,blue-x,blue-y
           Sets the red/green/blue chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE 1931.

       --white-colour-coordinates TID:x,y
           Sets the white colour chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE 1931.

       --max-luminance TID:float
           Sets the maximum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²). The value should be less than
           9999.99.

       --min-luminance TID:float
           Sets the minimum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²). The value should be less than
           999.9999.

       --projection-type TID:method
           Sets the video projection method used. Valid values are 0 (rectangular projection), 1
           (equirectangular projection), 2 (cubemap projection) and 3 (mesh projection).

       --projection-private TID:data
           Sets private data that only applies to a specific projection. Data must be given as hex numbers with
           or without the "0x" prefix, with or without spaces.

       --projection-pose-yaw TID:float
           Specifies a yaw rotation to the projection.

       --projection-pose-pitch TID:float
           Specifies a pitch rotation to the projection.

       --projection-pose-roll TID:float
           Specifies a roll rotation to the projection.

       --field-order TID:n
           Sets the field order for the video track with the track ID TID. The order must be one of the
           following numbers:

           0: progressive; 1: interlaced with top field displayed first and top field stored first; 2:
           undetermined field order; 6: interlaced with bottom field displayed first and bottom field stored
           first; 9: interlaced with bottom field displayed first and top field stored first; 14: interlaced
           with top field displayed first and bottom field stored first

       --stereo-mode TID:n|keyword
           Sets the stereo mode for the video track with the track ID TID. The mode can either be a number n
           between 0 and 14 or one of these keywords:

           'mono', 'side_by_side_left_first', 'top_bottom_right_first', 'top_bottom_left_first',
           'checkerboard_right_first', 'checkerboard_left_first', 'row_interleaved_right_first',
           'row_interleaved_left_first', 'column_interleaved_right_first', 'column_interleaved_left_first',
           'anaglyph_cyan_red', 'side_by_side_right_first', 'anaglyph_green_magenta',
           'both_eyes_laced_left_first', 'both_eyes_laced_right_first'.

   Options that only apply to text subtitle tracks
       --sub-charset TID:character-set
           Sets the character set for the conversion to UTF-8 for UTF-8 subtitles for the given track ID. If not
           specified the charset will be derived from the current locale settings. Note that a charset is not
           needed for subtitles read from Matroska files or from Kate streams, as these are always stored in
           UTF-8. See the section about text files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1)
           converts between character sets.

           This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying to several tracks by selecting
           different track IDs each time.

   Other options
       -i, --identify file-name
           Will let mkvmerge(1) probe the single file and report its type, the tracks contained in the file and
           their track IDs. If this option is used then the only other option allowed is the filename.

           The output format used for the result can be changed with the option --identification-format.

       -J file-name
           This is a convenient alias for "--identification-format json --identify file-name".

       -F, --identification-format format
           Determines the output format used by the --identify option. The following formats are supported: text
           (the default if this option isn't used) and json.

            1. The text format is short and human-readable. It consists of one line per item found (container,
               tracks, attachments etc.).

               This format is not meant to be parsed. The output will be translated into the language
               mkvmerge(1) uses (see also --ui-language).

            2. The json format outputs a machine-readable JSON representation. This format follows the JSON
               schema described in the following file:

               mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json[3]

               All versions of the JSON schema are available both online and in the released source code
               archives.

       --probe-range-percentage percentage
           File types such as MPEG program and transport streams (.vob, .m2ts) require parsing a certain amount
           of data in order to detect all tracks contained in the file. This amount is 0.3% of the source file's
           size or 10 MB, whichever is higher.

           If tracks are known to be present but not found then the percentage to probe can be changed with this
           option. The minimum of 10 MB is built-in and cannot be changed.

       -l, --list-types
           Lists supported input file types.

       --list-languages
           Lists all languages and their ISO 639-2 code which can be used with the --language option.

       --priority priority
           Sets the process priority that mkvmerge(1) runs with. Valid values are 'lowest', 'lower', 'normal',
           'higher' and 'highest'. If nothing is given then 'normal' is used. On Unix like systems mkvmerge(1)
           will use the nice(2) function. Therefore only the super user can use 'higher' and 'highest'. On
           Windows all values are useable for every user.

           Selecting 'lowest' also causes mkvmerge(1) to select idle I/O priority in addition to the lowest
           possible process priority.

       --command-line-charset character-set
           Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line from. It defaults to the
           character set given by system's current locale. This settings applies to arguments of the following
           options: --title, --track-name and --attachment-description.

       --output-charset character-set
           Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to be output. It defaults to the
           character set given by system's current locale.

       -r, --redirect-output file-name
           Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the console. While this can be done easily
           with output redirection there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
           reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character set set with --output-charset is
           honored.

       --flush-on-close
           Tells the program to flush all data cached in memory to storage when closing files opened for
           writing. This can be used to prevent data loss on power outages or to circumvent certain problems in
           the operating system or drivers. The downside is that multiplexing will take longer as mkvmerge will
           wait until all data has been written to the storage before exiting. See issues #2469 and #2480 on the
           MKVToolNix bug tracker for in-depth discussions on the pros and cons.

       --ui-language code
           Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g. 'de_DE' for the German translations).
           Entering 'list' as the code will cause the program to output a list of available translations.

       --abort-on-warnings
           Tells the program to abort after the first warning is emitted. The program's exit code will be 1.

       --deterministic seed
           Enables the creation of byte-identical files if the same version of mkvmerge(1) is used with the same
           source files, the same set of options and the same seed. Note that the "date" segment information
           field is not written in this mode.

           The seed can be an arbitrary string and does not have to be a number.

           The result of byte-identical files is only guaranteed under the following conditions:

            1. The same version of mkvmerge(1) built with the same versions of libEBML and libMatroska is used.

            2. The source files used are byte-identical.

            3. The same command line options are used in the same order (with the notable exception of --output
               ...).

           Using other versions of mkvmerge(1) or other command-line options may result in the same
           byte-identical file but is not guaranteed to do so.

       --debug topic
           Turn on debugging for a specific feature. This option is only useful for developers.

       --engage feature
           Turn on experimental features. A list of available features can be requested with mkvmerge --engage
           list. These features are not meant to be used in normal situations.

       --gui-mode
           Turns on GUI mode. In this mode specially-formatted lines may be output that can tell a controlling
           GUI what's happening. These messages follow the format '#GUI#message'. The message may be followed by
           key/value pairs as in '#GUI#message#key1=value1#key2=value2...'. Neither the messages nor the keys
           are ever translated and always output in English.

       @options-file.json
           Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file. See the section about option
           files for further information.

       --capabilities
           Lists information about optional features that have been compiled in and exit. The first line output
           will be the version information. All following lines contain exactly one word whose presence
           indicates that the feature has been compiled in. These features are:

           •   'FLAC' -- reading raw FLAC files and handling FLAC tracks in other containers, e.g.  Ogg or
               Matroska.

       -h, --help
           Show usage information and exit.

       -V, --version
           Show version information and exit.

USAGE

       For each file the user can select which tracks mkvmerge(1) should take. They are all put into the file
       specified with -o. A list of known (and supported) source formats can be obtained with the -l option.

           Important
           The order of command line options is important. Please read the section "Option order" if you're new
           to the program.

OPTION ORDER

       The order in which options are entered is important for some options. Options fall into two categories:

        1. Options that affect the whole program and are not tied to any input file. These include but are not
           limited to --command-line-charset, --output or --title. These can appear anywhere on the command
           line.

        2. Options that affect a single input file or a single track in an input file. These options all apply
           to the following input file on the command line. All options applying to the same input (or to tracks
           from the same input file) file can be written in any order as long as they all appear before that
           input file's name. Examples for options applying to an input file are --no-chapters or
           --chapter-charset. Examples for options applying to a single track are --default-duration or
           --language.

       The options are processed from left to right. If an option appears multiple times within the same scope
       then the last occurrence will be used. Therefore the title will be set to "Something else" in the
       following example:

           $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --title 'This and that' input.avi --title 'Something else'

       The following example shows that using the --language option twice is OK because they're used in
       different scopes. Even though they apply to the same track ID they apply to different input files and
       therefore have different scopes:

           $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --language 0:fre français.ogg --language 0:deu deutsch.ogg

EXAMPLES

       Let's assume you have a file called MyMovie.avi and the audio track in a separate file, e.g.
       'MyMovie.wav'. First you want to encode the audio to OggVorbis:

           $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie.ogg MyMovie.wav

       After a couple of minutes you can join video and audio:

           $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg

       If your AVI already contains an audio track then it will be copied as well (if mkvmerge(1) supports the
       audio format). To avoid that simply do

           $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg

       After some minutes of consideration you rip another audio track, e.g. the director's comments or another
       language to 'MyMovie-add-audio.wav'. Encode it again and join it up with the other file:

           $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie-add-audio.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.wav
           $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie-add-audio.ogg

       The same result can be achieved with

           $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.ogg

       Now fire up mplayer and enjoy. If you have multiple audio tracks (or even video tracks) then you can tell
       mplayer which track to play with the '-vid' and '-aid' options. These are 0-based and do not distinguish
       between video and audio.

       If you need an audio track synchronized you can do that easily. First find out which track ID the Vorbis
       track has with

           $ mkvmerge --identify outofsync.ogg

       Now you can use that ID in the following command line:

           $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -A source.avi -y 12345:200 outofsync.ogg

       This would add 200ms of silence at the beginning of the audio track with the ID 12345 taken from
       'outofsync.ogg'.

       Some movies start synced correctly but slowly drift out of sync. For these kind of movies you can specify
       a delay factor that is applied to all timestamps -- no data is added or removed. So if you make that
       factor too big or too small you'll get bad results. An example is that an episode I transcoded was 0.2
       seconds out of sync at the end of the movie which was 77340 frames long. At 29.97fps 0.2 seconds
       correspond to approx.  6 frames. So I did

           $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -y 23456:0,77346/77340 outofsync.mkv

       The result was fine.

       The sync options can also be used for subtitles in the same manner.

       For text subtitles you can either use some Windows software (like SubRipper) or the subrip package found
       in transcode(1)'s sources in the 'contrib/subrip' directory. The general process is:

        1. extract a raw subtitle stream from the source:

               $ tccat -i /path/to/copied/dvd/ -T 1 -L | tcextract -x ps1 -t vob -a 0x20 | subtitle2pgm -o mymovie

        2. convert the resulting PGM images to text with gocr:

               $ pgm2txt mymovie

        3. spell-check the resulting text files:

               $ ispell -d american *txt

        4. convert the text files to a SRT file:

               $ srttool -s -w -i mymovie.srtx -o mymovie.srt

       The resulting file can be used as another input file for mkvmerge(1):

           $ mkvmerge -o mymovie.mkv mymovie.avi mymovie.srt

       If you want to specify the language for a given track then this is easily done. First find out the ISO
       639-2 code for your language.  mkvmerge(1) can list all of those codes for you:

           $ mkvmerge --list-languages

       Search the list for the languages you need. Let's assume you have put two audio tracks into a Matroska
       file and want to set their language codes and that their track IDs are 2 and 3. This can be done with

           $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut without-lang-codes.mkv

       As you can see you can use the --language switch multiple times.

       Maybe you'd also like to have the player use the Dutch language as the default language. You also have
       extra subtitles, e.g. in English and French, and want to have the player display the French ones by
       default. This can be done with

           $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut --default-track 3 without-lang-codes.mkv --language 0:eng english.srt --default-track 0 --language 0:fre french.srt

       If you do not see the language or default track flags that you've specified in mkvinfo(1)'s output then
       please read the section about default values.

       Turn off the compression for an input file.

           $ mkvmerge -o no-compression.mkv --compression -1:none MyMovie.avi --compression -1:none mymovie.srt

TRACK IDS

   Regular track IDs
       Some of the options for mkvmerge(1) need a track ID to specify which track they should be applied to.
       Those track IDs are printed by the readers when demuxing the current input file, or if mkvmerge(1) is
       called with the --identify option. An example for such output:

           $ mkvmerge -i v.mkv
           File 'v.mkv': container: Matroska
           Track ID 0: video (V_MS/VFW/FOURCC, DIV3)
           Track ID 1: audio (A_MPEG/L3)

       Do not confuse the track IDs that are assigned to the tracks that are placed in the output MKV file with
       the track IDs of the input files. Only the input file track IDs are used for options needing these
       values.

       Also note that each input file has its own set of track IDs. Therefore the track IDs for file 'file1.ext'
       as reported by 'mkvmerge --identify' do not change no matter how many other input files are there or in
       which position 'file1.ext' is used.

       Track IDs are assigned like this:

       •   AVI files: The video track has the ID 0. The audio tracks get IDs in ascending order starting at 1.

       •   AAC, AC-3, MP3, SRT and WAV files: The one 'track' in that file gets the ID 0.

       •   Most other files: The track IDs are assigned in order the tracks are found in the file starting at 0.

       The options that use the track IDs are the ones whose description contains 'TID'. The following options
       use track IDs as well: --audio-tracks, --video-tracks, --subtitle-tracks, --button-tracks and
       --track-tags.

   Special track IDs
       There are several IDs that have special meaning and do not occur in the identification output.

       The special track ID '-1' is a wild card and applies the given switch to all tracks that are read from an
       input file.

       The special track ID '-2' refers to the chapters in a source file. Currently only the --sync option uses
       this special ID. As an alternative to --sync -2:...  the option --chapter-sync ...  can be used.

TEXT FILES AND CHARACTER SET CONVERSIONS

           Note
           This section applies to all programs in MKVToolNix even if it only mentions mkvmerge(1).

   Introduction
       All text in a Matroska file is encoded in UTF-8. This means that mkvmerge(1) has to convert every text
       file it reads as well as every text given on the command line from one character set into UTF-8. In
       return this also means that mkvmerge(1)'s output has to be converted back to that character set from
       UTF-8, e.g. if a non-English translation is used with --ui-language or for text originating from a
       Matroska file.

       mkvmerge(1) does this conversion automatically based on the presence of a byte order marker (short: BOM)
       or the system's current locale. How the character set is inferred from the locale depends on the
       operating system that mkvmerge(1) is run on.

   Byte order markers (BOM)
       Text files that start with a BOM are already encoded in one representation of UTF.  mkvmerge(1) supports
       the following five modes: UTF-8, UTF-16 Little and Big Endian, UTF-32 Little and Big Endian. Text files
       with a BOM are automatically converted to UTF-8. Any of the parameters that would otherwise set the
       character set for such a file (e.g.  --sub-charset) is silently ignored.

   Linux and Unix-like systems including macOS
       On Unix-like systems mkvmerge(1) uses the setlocale(3) system call which in turn uses the environment
       variables LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CYPE. The resulting character set is often one of UTF-8 or the ISO-8859-*
       family and is used for all text file operations and for encoding strings on the command line and for
       output to the console.

   Windows
       On Windows the default character set used for converting text files is determined by a call to the
       GetACP() system call.

       Reading the command line is done with the GetCommandLineW() function which already returns a Unicode
       string. Therefore the option --command-line-charset is ignored on Windows.

       Output to the console consists of three scenarios:

        1. If the output is redirected with the option --redirect-output then the default charset is UTF-8. This
           can be changed with --output-charset.

           If the output is redirected with cmd.exe itself, e.g. with mkvinfo file.mkv > info.txt, then the
           charset is always UTF-8 and cannot be changed.

           Otherwise (when writing directly to the console) the Windows function WriteConsoleW() is used and the
           option --output-charset is ignored. The console should be able to output all Unicode characters for
           which the corresponding language support is installed (e.g. Chinese characters might not be displayed
           on English Windows versions).

   Command line options
       The following options exist that allow specifying the character sets:

       •   --sub-charset for text subtitle files and for text subtitle tracks stored in container formats for
           which the character set cannot be determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files),

       •   --chapter-charset for chapter text files and for chapters and file titles stored in container formats
           for which the character set cannot be determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files for chapter
           information, track and file titles etc; MP4 files for chapter information),

       •   --command-line-charset for all strings on the command line,

       •   --output-charset for all strings written to the console or to a file if the output has been
           redirected with the --redirect-output option. On non-Windows systems the default for the output
           charset is the system's current charset. On Windows it defaults to UTF-8 both for redirecting with
           --redirect-output and with cmd.exe itself, e.g.  mkvinfo file.mkv > info.txt.

OPTION FILES

       An option file is a file mkvmerge(1) can read additional command line arguments from. This can be used in
       order to circumvent certain limitations of the shell or the operating system when executing external
       programs like a limited command line length.

       An option file contains JSON-formatted data. Its content must be a valid JSON array consisting solely of
       JSON strings. The file's encoding must be UTF-8. The file should not start with a byte order marker
       (BOM), but if one exists, it will be skipped.

       The rules for escaping special characters inside JSON are the ones in the official JSON specification,
       RFC 7159[4].

       The command line 'mkvmerge -o "my file.mkv" -A "a movie.avi" sound.ogg' could be converted into the
       following JSON option file called e.g. 'options.json':

           [
             "-o",
             "c:\\Matroska\\my file.mkv",
             "--title",
             "#65",
             "-A",
             "a movie.avi",
             "sound.ogg"
           ]

SUBTITLES

       There are several text and bitmap subtitle formats that can be embedded into Matroska. Text subtitles
       must be recoded to UTF-8 so that they can be displayed correctly by a player (see the section about text
       files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1) converts between character sets). Kate
       subtitles are already encoded in UTF-8 and do not have to be re-encoded.

       The following subtitle formats are supported at the moment:

       •   Subtitle Ripper (SRT) files

       •   Substation Alpha (SSA) / Advanced Substation Alpha scripts (ASS)

       •   Universal Subtitle Format (USF) files

       •   OggKate streams

       •   VobSub bitmap subtitle files

       •   PGS bitmap subtitle files as found on BluRay discs

FILE LINKING

       Matroska supports file linking which simply says that a specific file is the predecessor or successor of
       the current file. To be precise, it's not really the files that are linked but the Matroska segments. As
       most files will probably only contain one Matroska segment the following explanations use the term 'file
       linking' although 'segment linking' would be more appropriate.

       Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segment UID. This UID is automatically generated by
       mkvmerge(1). The linking is done primarily via putting the segment UIDs (short: SID) of the previous/next
       file into the segment header information.  mkvinfo(1) prints these SIDs if it finds them.

       If a file is split into several smaller ones and linking is used then the timestamps will not start at 0
       again but will continue where the last file has left off. This way the absolute time is kept even if the
       previous files are not available (e.g. when streaming). If no linking is used then the timestamps should
       start at 0 for each file. By default mkvmerge(1) does not use file linking. If you want that you can turn
       it on with the --link option. This option is only useful if splitting is activated as well.

       Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell mkvmerge(1) to link the produced files
       to specific SIDs. This is achieved with the options --link-to-previous and --link-to-next. These options
       accept a segment SID in the format that mkvinfo(1) outputs: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff
       prefixed with '0x' each, e.g. '0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66 0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca 0xb3
       0x93'. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff without the
       '0x' prefixes and without the spaces, e.g. '41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393'.

       If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the SID given with --link-to-previous and the last
       file is linked to the SID given with --link-to-next. If splitting is not used then the one output file
       will be linked to both of the two SIDs.

DEFAULT VALUES

       The Matroska specification states that some elements have a default value. Usually an element is not
       written to the file if its value is equal to its default value in order to save space. The elements that
       the user might miss in mkvinfo(1)'s output are the language and the default track flag elements. The
       default value for the language is English ('eng'), and the default value for the default track flag is
       true. Therefore if you used --language 0:eng for a track then it will not show up in mkvinfo(1)'s output.

ATTACHMENTS

       Maybe you also want to keep some photos along with your Matroska file, or you're using SSA subtitles and
       need a special TrueType font that's really rare. In these cases you can attach those files to the
       Matroska file. They will not be just appended to the file but embedded in it. A player can then show
       those files (the 'photos' case) or use them to render the subtitles (the 'TrueType fonts' case).

       Here's an example how to attach a photo and a TrueType font to the output file:

           $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv -A video.avi sound.ogg \
             --attachment-description "Me and the band behind the stage in a small get-together" \
             --attachment-mime-type image/jpeg \
             --attach-file me_and_the_band.jpg \
             --attachment-description "The real rare and unbelievably good looking font" \
             --attachment-mime-type application/octet-stream \
             --attach-file really_cool_font.ttf

       If a Matroska containing attachments file is used as an input file then mkvmerge(1) will copy the
       attachments into the new file. The selection which attachments are copied and which are not can be
       changed with the options --attachments and --no-attachments.

CHAPTERS

       The Matroska chapter system is more powerful than the old known system used by OGM files. The full
       specifications can be found at the Matroska website[1].

       mkvmerge(1) supports two kinds of chapter files as its input. The first format, called 'simple chapter
       format', is the same format that the OGM tools expect. The second format is a XML based chapter format
       which supports all of Matroska's chapter functionality.

   The simple chapter format
       This format consists of pairs of lines that start with 'CHAPTERxx=' and 'CHAPTERxxNAME=' respectively.
       The first one contains the start timestamp while the second one contains the title. Here's an example:

           CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
           CHAPTER01NAME=Intro
           CHAPTER02=00:02:30.000
           CHAPTER02NAME=Baby prepares to rock
           CHAPTER03=00:02:42.300
           CHAPTER03NAME=Baby rocks the house

       mkvmerge(1) will transform every pair or lines into one Matroska ChapterAtom. It does not set any
       ChapterTrackNumber which means that the chapters all apply to all tracks in the file.

       As this is a text file character set conversion may need to be done. See the section about text files and
       character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1) converts between character sets.

   The XML based chapter format
       The XML based chapter format looks like this example:

           <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
           <!DOCTYPE Chapters SYSTEM "matroskachapters.dtd">
           <Chapters>
             <EditionEntry>
               <ChapterAtom>
                 <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:30.000</ChapterTimeStart>
                 <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:20.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
                 <ChapterDisplay>
                   <ChapterString>A short chapter</ChapterString>
                   <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
                 </ChapterDisplay>
                 <ChapterAtom>
                   <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:46.000</ChapterTimeStart>
                   <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:10.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
                   <ChapterDisplay>
                     <ChapterString>A part of that short chapter</ChapterString>
                     <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
                   </ChapterDisplay>
                 </ChapterAtom>
               </ChapterAtom>
             </EditionEntry>
           </Chapters>

       With this format three things are possible that are not possible with the simple chapter format:

        1. The timestamp for the end of the chapter can be set,

        2. chapters can be nested,

        3. the language and country can be set.

       The mkvtoolnix distribution contains some sample files in the doc subdirectory which can be used as a
       basis.

       The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where appropriate, the valid range for
       their values:

           Chapters (master)
             EditionEntry (master)
               EditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
               EditionFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
               EditionFlagDefault (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
               EditionFlagOrdered (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
               ChapterAtom (master)
                 ChapterAtom (master)
                 ChapterUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
                 ChapterTimeStart (unsigned integer)
                 ChapterTimeEnd (unsigned integer)
                 ChapterFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
                 ChapterFlagEnabled (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
                 ChapterSegmentUID (binary, valid range: 1 <= length in bytes)
                 ChapterSegmentEditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
                 ChapterPhysicalEquiv (unsigned integer)
                 ChapterTrack (master)
                   ChapterTrackNumber (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
                 ChapterDisplay (master)
                   ChapterString (UTF-8 string)
                   ChapterLanguage (UTF-8 string)
                   ChapterCountry (UTF-8 string)
                 ChapterProcess (master)
                   ChapterProcessCodecID (unsigned integer)
                   ChapterProcessPrivate (binary)
                   ChapterProcessCommand (master)
                     ChapterProcessTime (unsigned integer)
                     ChapterProcessData (binary)

   General notes
       When splitting files mkvmerge(1) will correctly adjust the chapters as well. This means that each file
       only includes the chapter entries that apply to it, and that the timestamps will be offset to match the
       new timestamps of each output file.

       mkvmerge(1) is able to copy chapters from Matroska source files unless this is explicitly disabled with
       the --no-chapters option. The chapters from all sources (Matroska files, Ogg files, MP4 files, chapter
       text files) are usually not merged but end up in separate ChapterEditions. Only if chapters are read from
       several Matroska or XML files that share the same edition UIDs will chapters be merged into a single
       ChapterEdition. If such a merge is desired in other situations as well then the user has to extract the
       chapters from all sources with mkvextract(1) first, merge the XML files manually and mux them afterwards.

TAGS

   Introduction
       Matroska's tag system is similar to that of other containers: a set of KEY=VALUE pairs. However, in
       Matroska these tags can also be nested, and both the KEY and the VALUE are elements of their own. The
       example file example-tags-2.xml shows how to use this system.

   Scope of the tags
       Matroska tags do not automatically apply to the complete file. They can, but they also may apply to
       different parts of the file: to one or more tracks, to one or more chapters, or even to a combination of
       both. The Matroska specification[5] gives more details about this fact.

       One important fact is that tags are linked to tracks or chapters with the Targets Matroska tag element,
       and that the UIDs used for this linking are not the track IDs mkvmerge(1) uses everywhere. Instead the
       numbers used are the UIDs which mkvmerge(1) calculates automatically (if the track is taken from a file
       format other than Matroska) or which are copied from the source file if the track's source file is a
       Matroska file. Therefore it is difficult to know which UIDs to use in the tag file before the file is
       handed over to mkvmerge(1).

       mkvmerge(1) knows two options with which you can add tags to Matroska files: The --global-tags and the
       --tags options. The difference is that the former option, --global-tags, will make the tags apply to the
       complete file by removing any of those Targets elements mentioned above. The latter option, --tags,
       automatically inserts the UID that mkvmerge(1) generates for the tag specified with the TID part of the
       --tags option.

   Example
       Let's say that you want to add tags to a video track read from an AVI.  mkvmerge --identify file.avi
       tells you that the video track's ID (do not mix this ID with the UID!) is 0. So you create your tag file,
       leave out all Targets elements and call mkvmerge(1):

           $ mkvmerge -o file.mkv --tags 0:tags.xml file.avi

   Tag file format
       mkvmerge(1) supports a XML based tag file format. The format is very closely modeled after the Matroska
       specification[5]. Both the binary and the source distributions of MKVToolNix come with a sample file
       called example-tags-2.xml which simply lists all known tags and which can be used as a basis for real
       life tag files.

       The basics are:

       •   The outermost element must be <Tags>.

       •   One logical tag is contained inside one pair of <Tag> XML tags.

       •   White spaces directly before and after tag contents are ignored.

   Data types
       The new Matroska tagging system only knows two data types, a UTF-8 string and a binary type. The first is
       used for the tag's name and the <String> element while the binary type is used for the <Binary> element.

       As binary data itself would not fit into a XML file mkvmerge(1) supports two other methods of storing
       binary data. If the contents of a XML tag starts with '@' then the following text is treated as a file
       name. The corresponding file's content is copied into the Matroska element.

       Otherwise the data is expected to be Base64 encoded. This is an encoding that transforms binary data into
       a limited set of ASCII characters and is used e.g. in email programs.  mkvextract(1) will output Base64
       encoded data for binary elements.

       The deprecated tagging system knows some more data types which can be found in the official Matroska tag
       specs. As mkvmerge(1) does not support this system anymore these types aren't described here.

   Known tags for the XML file format
       The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where appropriate, the valid range for
       their values:

           Tags (master)
             Tag (master)
               Targets (master)
                 TargetTypeValue (unsigned integer)
                 TargetType (UTF-8 string)
                 TrackUID (unsigned integer)
                 EditionUID (unsigned integer)
                 ChapterUID (unsigned integer)
                 AttachmentUID (unsigned integer)
               Simple (master)
                 Simple (master)
                 Name (UTF-8 string)
                 TagLanguage (UTF-8 string)
                 DefaultLanguage (unsigned integer)
                 String (UTF-8 string)
                 Binary (binary)

THE SEGMENT INFO XML FILES

       With a segment info XML file it is possible to set certain values in the "segment information" header
       field of a Matroska file. All of these values cannot be set via other command line options.

       Other "segment information" header fields can be set via command line options but not via the XML file.
       This includes e.g. the --title and the --timestamp-scale options.

       There are other elements that can be set neither via command line options nor via the XML files. These
       include the following elements: DateUTC (also known as the "muxing date"), MuxingApp, WritingApp and
       Duration. They're always set by mkvmerge(1) itself.

       The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where appropriate, the valid range for
       their values:

           Info (master)
             SegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
             SegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
             PreviousSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
             PreviousSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
             NextSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
             NextSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
             SegmentFamily (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
             ChapterTranslate (master)
               ChapterTranslateEditionUID (unsigned integer)
               ChapterTranslateCodec (unsigned integer)
               ChapterTranslateID (binary)

MATROSKA FILE LAYOUT

       The Matroska file layout is quite flexible.  mkvmerge(1) will render a file in a predefined way. The
       resulting file looks like this:

       [EBML head] [segment {meta seek #1} [segment information] [track information] {attachments} {chapters}
       [cluster 1] {cluster 2} ... {cluster n} {cues} {meta seek #2} {tags}]

       The elements in curly braces are optional and depend on the contents and options used. A couple of notes:

       •   meta seek #1 includes only a small number of level 1 elements, and only if they actually exist:
           attachments, chapters, cues, tags, meta seek #2. Older versions of mkvmerge(1) used to put the
           clusters into this meta seek element as well. Therefore some imprecise guessing was necessary to
           reserve enough space. It often failed. Now only the clusters are stored in meta seek #2, and meta
           seek #1 refers to the meta seek element #2.

       •   Attachment, chapter and tag elements are only present if they were added.

       The shortest possible Matroska file would look like this:

       [EBML head] [segment [segment information] [track information] [cluster 1]]

       This might be the case for audio-only files.

EXTERNAL TIMESTAMP FILES

       mkvmerge(1) allows the user to chose the timestamps for a specific track himself. This can be used in
       order to create files with variable frame rate video or include gaps in audio. A frame in this case is
       the unit that mkvmerge(1) creates separately per Matroska block. For video this is exactly one frame, for
       audio this is one packet of the specific audio type. E.g. for AC-3 this would be a packet containing 1536
       samples.

       Timestamp files that are used when tracks are appended to each other must only be specified for the first
       part in a chain of tracks. For example if you append two files, v1.avi and v2.avi, and want to use
       timestamps then your command line must look something like this:

           $ mkvmerge ... --timestamps 0:my_timestamps.txt v1.avi +v2.avi

       There are four formats that are recognized by mkvmerge(1). The first line always contains the version
       number. Empty lines, lines containing only whitespace and lines beginning with '#' are ignored.

   Timestamp file format v1
       This format starts with the version line. The second line declares the default number of frames per
       second. All following lines contain three numbers separated by commas: the start frame (0 is the first
       frame), the end frame and the number of frames in this range. The FPS is a floating point number with the
       dot '.' as the decimal point. The ranges can contain gaps for which the default FPS is used. An example:

           # timestamp format v1
           assume 27.930
           800,1000,25
           1500,1700,30

   Timestamp file format v2
       In this format each line contains a timestamp for the corresponding frame. This timestamp must be given
       in millisecond precision. It can be a floating point number, but it doesn't have to be. You have to give
       at least as many timestamp lines as there are frames in the track. The timestamps in this file must be
       sorted. Example for 25fps:

           # timestamp format v2
           0
           40
           80

   Timestamp file format v3
       In this format each line contains a duration in seconds followed by an optional number of frames per
       second. Both can be floating point numbers. If the number of frames per second is not present the default
       one is used. For audio you should let the codec calculate the frame timestamps itself. For that you
       should be using 0.0 as the number of frames per second. You can also create gaps in the stream by using
       the 'gap' keyword followed by the duration of the gap. Example for an audio file:

           # timestamp format v3
           assume 0.0
           25.325
           7.530,38.236
           gap, 10.050
           2.000,38.236

   Timestamp file format v4
       This format is identical to the v2 format. The only difference is that the timestamps do not have to be
       sorted. This format should almost never be used.

EXIT CODES

       mkvmerge(1) exits with one of three exit codes:

       •   0 -- This exit code means that muxing has completed successfully.

       •   1 -- In this case mkvmerge(1) has output at least one warning, but muxing did continue. A warning is
           prefixed with the text 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting file might be ok or
           not. The user is urged to check both the warning and the resulting file.

       •   2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred.  mkvmerge(1) aborts right after outputting the
           error message. Error messages range from wrong command line arguments over read/write errors to
           broken files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       mkvmerge(1) uses the default variables that determine the system's locale (e.g.  LANG and the LC_*
       family). Additional variables:

       MKVMERGE_DEBUG, MKVTOOLNIX_DEBUG and its short form MTX_DEBUG
           The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --debug option.

       MKVMERGE_ENGAGE, MKVTOOLNIX_ENGAGE and its short form MTX_ENGAGE
           The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --engage option.

SEE ALSO

       mkvinfo(1), mkvextract(1), mkvpropedit(1), mkvtoolnix-gui(1)

WWW

       The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[6].

AUTHOR

       Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
           Developer

NOTES

        1. the Matroska website
           http://www.matroska.org/

        2. the IANA homepage
           http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/

        3. mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json
           https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json

        4. RFC 7159
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159

        5. Matroska specification
           http://matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html

        6. the MKVToolNix homepage
           https://mkvtoolnix.download/